What is Design Thinking?
Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that assists organizations to develop products, services, processes, and strategies. It is an iterative and collaborative problem solving process that focuses on empathy.
Traditional Thinking
Improves existing ideas
Understand usage
Who and what focus
Employs objective analysis
Problem solving
Flawless planning
Design Thinking
Inspires new ideas
Understand motivation
How and why focus
Engages empathetic experiences
Opportunity generating
Enlightened trial and error
Divergent & Convergent Work
The beginning of the design thinking process is characterized by divergent work. Divergent work generates new ideas and approaches for a team to examine and test. This gives a team many options to choose from.

Discover

Interpret

Ideate

Experiment

Implement
As the work proceeds, it becomes convergent. The team chooses specific ideas, experiments with, and implements those ideas.
Discover
I have a challenge. How do I approach it?
During this phase, you should be:
- Asking “What matters to this person?”
- Connecting through empathy
- Interviewing users
- Writing observations
- Understanding aspirations and motivations
View Discover Plays
Interpret
I learned something. How do I interpret it?
During this phase, you should be:
- Define needs, patterns and trends
- Identify themes, insights and principles
- Reframe the challenge based on insights
View Interpret Plays
Ideate
I see an opportunity. What do I create?
During this phase, you should be:
- Generating new ideas (more is better!)
- Imagining what might be created
- Redefining ideas
- Add constraints
View Ideate Plays
Experiment
I have an idea. How do I build it?
During this phase, you should be:
- Building rapid prototypes
- Ensuring all ideas can be shown visually
- Seeking feedback on your work
- Validate your idea
View Experiment Plays
Implement
I tried something new. How do I evolve it?
During this phase, you should be:
- Keeping track of what you have learned
- Asking “How can we improve this?”
- Returning to “discover” to make a plan for next steps
View Implementation Plays
More Design Thinking Resources
- Human Centered Design at Amway Business Innovation
- The Good Kitchen – Example of Design Thinking
- Introduction to the Design Thinking Process
- Inspiring Creative Confidence – Justin Ferrell
- Design Thinking Workshop – Justin Ferrell
- Grand Valley State University Resources
- IDEO.org
- Design Tool Kit – IDEO